The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
It happens to all of us no matter how organized you feel you are on a daily basis. We all get in those organizing ruts where we come home and don’t feel like doing anything let alone organizing.
I consider myself a pretty organized person even though you may not be able to tell if you stopped by my house when my kiddos have been playing. Have you ever noticed how kids can destroy a living room in less than 5 minutes? Amazing! But, there are times when I just don’t feel like picking up or organizing. Sometimes, it lasts for a day and other times it may last for a week or two.
My mind will be telling me to get up and do something, but my body doesn’t really care about my mind’s opinion.
So, how do I get back in the groove of things?
There are a few tips that I use to get my act together to overcome procrastination and get back in the swing of organizing and I wanted to share them with y’all.
#1 – Find Some Inspiration
When I find myself sitting on the couch and can’t get motivated to do anything, I have to find some inspiration. And, that inspiration usually comes in the form of blog posts, YouTube videos, and magazines. Watching other people organize their life is all I need to get motivated. The more YouTube videos I watch and the more blog posts I read, the more motivated I become.
Your motivation may come from other sources. Find what makes you want to get up and start cleaning out a closet or drawer and let it motivate you.
#2 – Set Small Attainable Goals
In my opinion, the worst thing you can do when you are having a hard time getting motivated is to take on a project that is too large. You are already feeling unmotivated, so adding a project that takes a lot of time and effort may make your mood even worse.
I take on small projects that make a huge difference. Cleaning out a drawer, straightening up a shelf, or simply clearing off a flat surface will give me a boost of confidence and motivate me to tackle a larger project.
#3 – Reward Yourself
I am a firm believer that you should always reward yourself when you have accomplished a goal. It doesn’t have to be an expensive reward or even something that costs money. Rewarding yourself could mean taking a nap or spending three hours reading a book that you haven’t had time to read.
Rewarding yourself will keep you motivated and make you happy at the same time.
#4 – Ask for Help
I am the world’s worst at asking for help, but sometimes it has to be done. If you are feeling overwhelmed and like you can not get everything organized by yourself, then you need some assistance. Don’t feel like a failure because you couldn’t do it all by yourself.
#5 – Make it Fun
Fun means different things to different people. In my household, we have a clean-up game that we play to get ourselves motivated to organize. It is called the Pick Up 10 Game and the whole family gets involved. We all race around the house picking up and putting away 10 things. As each person completes one of the ten tasks, they have to call out the number they are on. Whoever picks up and puts away their 10 items first WINS!!! We are lucky at the moment because our kids do not expect anything for winning our little family game. Beating mom and dad is enough of a reward.
It really makes organizing and cleaning up the house a fun task. The kids love it and we all laugh as we race around.
Find a fun way for you and your family to get organized. Making things fun means you aren’t working nearly as hard.
So, how do you get motivated to organize when you feel like procrastinating?
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
Mary J Paitsel says
1. Make an appointment with yourself for cleaning and organizing and honor that appointment–only 15 to 30 minutes per day.
2. Promise that you only have to organize 13 inches and then you can quit. If you want to go on–do!
3.Program in 15 minutes per hour of reward time to read, close your eyes and just relax, or put on some music and move. You can accumulate time for longer breaks.
4. Have mad dashes when there are commercials on television. Everyone participates. When commercials come on shout, “Clean up!” and see how much you all can get done in 5 minutes. Somehow it doesn’t seem like work when everyone is moving and playing a cleaning game.
5. Listen to music, listen to audio books, distract yourself while you are working. Time flies when you are having fun.
fran wilson says
We believe that your advice will be of great help to my
family..we like the added fun incentive..thanks!
jo says
Love listening to audio books while im cleaning up. I get rewarded the same time i clean.
Renee Schwendiman says
Thank you so much for for this fabulous post! I love your ideas. I am very much looking forward to reading through your blog!! So glad I found it.
Emily @ My Love for Words says
I love the pick up 10 game, and the idea that we should reward ourselves when we’re done. I’ve been working on getting more organized, but I haven’t really been rewarding myself so that’s a great idea for maintaining momentum when all I really want to do is procrastinate or quit.
Melissa Jenkins says
I am a subscriber to your blog and I love it! This post was especially helpful and had great tips! I love to organize, but sometimes am not motivated to do it! I also think these tips are great advice for when motivation is needed to exercise and eat healthy! Thanks so much!